Grass Continent ~ Treasure Town Beach

[Ambyssin]

Possession? That’s what this was? Necrozma tucked his arms into body. His core flickered erratically. He hit his right temple, trying to keep himself focused on the present.

He couldn’t think about her. She wasn’t a problem here. She wasn’t—

“Lady Celebi, might I ask what you and your friend have been doing lately? Did you notice him acting out of the ordinary?”

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmm..." Balm closed his eyes, his guard finally down enough that he could sit. "I don't know. I only noticed it now that it's gone, but I've felt a lot more paranoid than usual lately, not too long after we arrived. But... not so much anymore. Besides, I'm always at ease when Cepa is by my side." He nodded, looking calmer at just the thought.

"L-lady Celebi? Oh, how formal..." Cepa shrank away, smiling as she stared at the floor. It was fleeting once the question registered. "I have, actually. I didn't want to say it to him since of course he would be focused on the task, but... Balm, you'd been very high-strung lately. You couldn't trust anybody; you thought anyone we spoke to could have been the culprit, or some sort of villain... You had such a look in your eye that I didn't know how to help."

"I... I did. I was like that." Balm rubbed his head, a sudden fatigue creeping into him. "It was like all of my doubts were being amplified. I couldn't ignore them..."

 

[Ambyssin]

That was discouraging, but not entirely unheard of. Protracted exposure to an adrenaline orb could create such paranoia from what he’d seen.

“So, you’ve been traveling recently?” That was important. Sushi and Sashimi has also claimed to be traveling from what Truffle told him. “Where did you travel from?”

 

[Namohysip]

"Um." Cepa glanced at Balm, then at Necrozma. "Well, not really a where, more like a when?"

"Not entirely correct anymore," Balm stated, "but it's easier to think of it that way. We are from the future... or at least, that's what we normally would have said before our timelines were separated. There is still a link between our world and this one that a few Pokemon can travel through." Balm brought a claw to the blue gear around his chest. "This charm was given to me for safe travels between the two with Cepa, and a few other helpful perks. So, you could say that we're from the... parallel Grass Continent."

Murmurs followed the crowd. Cabot seemed skeptical. The future? So now Pokemon could time travel here, too? Was that something to do with aura as well?

"That looks like a Time Gear from the stories," Cynthian said, pointing a flower at it.

"It was modeled after one," Balm said with a small smile. "Don't worry. I didn't steal anything to get it this time."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Celeste’s eyes were wide. “I need to hear this story sometime.”

Even if, if he was judging their relationship correctly, it would probably have a romance subplot, but he was used to that. As long as the rest of the story is good, it wouldn’t bug him much.

 

[Ambyssin]

“Excuse me? You travel through time?” Necrozma said. He looked around. “I’m afraid that’s beyond anything I can truly understand. I’m just going to say you traveled for afar.”

He turned to Maple. “It seems like traveling Pokémon are the ones getting into predicaments? Is there a way for your bosses to issue some sort of advisor? Recommend people stay home?”

 

[The Walrein]

Jaro had never heard of or seen anything like the strange slug creature that could change people's behavior or make them sick like that. The closest he knew of was the hekma, sapient echoes that could get lodged in Mon's heads and drive them mad; but those were not material things that could be trapped in a bubble, and only the Pokemon afflicted by them could perceive them. With these slugs, it was the reverse, and it was the afflicted (and those close to them, apparently) who could not see them.

He also didn't know how it was possible for anyone to have come from the 'future'; it wasn't a place like a valley or mountain one could just come from. Maybe there was some lingering madness left over from the possession? In any case, he had a few questions...

"Uh, so you said there was a singluar 'the culprit'," Jaro said to Cepa, "and while he was maddened Balm thought Maple was 'the one destroying this world'. Do you know something that would give reason to believe that all the problems we've been having lately are the result of a single entity? And, speaking of those problems, I know they're bad but I wouldn't quite characterize them as 'the world being destroyed'. Are you aware of some we aren't? The ones we know of are Pokemon turning giant and going berserk, Pokemon going missing, Pokemon falling sick to a mysterious illness which may or may not be fully a result of the slug things, and Mystery Dungeons not shrinking anymore."

 

[windskull]

"Ah, yes, that is something Celebi can do, as Dialga's Herald, isn't it? Though I never knew that Celebi could take pokemon with him... Or, er, her, in this case. The Celebi in the legends I know was always referred to as male." Nip decided to try and not think too hard about that, though. Or the fact that this was Celebi, one of the lesser gods, that he was looking at. Or the fact that the pink pokemon that had transformed seemed suspiciously similar to stories about Mew, creator of most 'mon. He could ask about that when they weren't dealing with mysterious sickness slugs.

 

[Negrek]

Nate's attack landed, again--not that it was a surprise; certainly Celebi wouldn't bother watching out for him--and for a brief moment he was rewarded by the legend dipping in the air. But Celebi never even came close to hitting the sand, and with a quick twist she'd practically thrown him off entirely. Outrage at the legend's words lent him momentary strength: Crush? Worshipper? Worship this you fairy piece of shit! Ultimately, though, the attacks had taken too much out of him. Despite his best efforts, Nate's grip weakened until he dropped facefirst into the sand below, wheezing pathetically and raging silently at the psychic-type in his head.

What little he got out of the conversation going on around him was that the Celebi wasn't even from this fucking world, either. So maybe it was the one he was looking for, after all. He'd never heard about his Celebi being fucking pink, but why the hell not, right? The whole point was nobody'd seen the damn thing. It didn't really matter either way, because by this point Pinkebi had done more than enough to justify outright murder, but it was worth considering, at least.

Nate lay in the sand, gasping for air and occasionally struggling to get back to his feet. Thus far all he'd managed to accomplish was to flip himself over in the sand, and any more than that made his vision explode with scintillating lights, so he lay where he'd fallen and nursed thoughts of revenge while he listened to the chatter about slugs and shadows and, of course, more fucking time travel.

 

[Namohysip]

"It's mostly an assumption," Balm said, his body language looking even more fatigued.

"Balm... I think we should get you checked up," Cepa said, brushing off the last of the water that Nate had drenched her with.

"Not until I see Thyme," Balm said firmly, then shakily got to his feet. "Where is he?"

"Thyme. The human hero of this continent." Maple frowned, looking at the others.

 

[The Walrein]

Jaro wondered what exactly could've led the pair to that assumption, but could see the Balm was tired and decided not to press any further. Also, apparently this world had humans as well? Great, as if it hadn't already been hard enough keeping track of exactly who's worlds had humans in them and who used to be a human and all that...

Something in the corner of Jaro's eye drew his attention, and he turned to finally notice the Mudkip lying in the sand, gasping for breath. Wha- how long had they been there? He walked over to to the floundering Mudkip and offered them an arm. "Uh, hey, are you okay? Are you with Cepa and Balm over there?" he said, gesturing at the Sceptile and Celebi.

 

[Negrek]

Nate didn't exactly have the best vantage for getting a sense of what was going on around him. He recognized a couple of voices, and he could see part of the sceptile's foot, but that wasn't exactly very fucking enlightening. Nate paused a second when someone walked into his field of vision--jigglypuff? The jigglypuff? Yeah. Nate briefly considered not accepting the proffered hand, then wondered if he actually even could accept it, but ultimately, with an undignified lunge and a more-or-less climb up Jaro's arm and side, he managed to return to vertical.

Whether he was going to stay that way was less certain. God, why did he have to be so fucking weak. It wasn't like he'd even done shit, Jesus Christ. Nate closed his eyes and forced himself to let go of Jaro's arm. He swayed dangerously a moment, but as long as he held just like this and didn't try to move at all, he would probably be okay.

Anger, again, at Jaro's question--fucking really, did it look like he was with those douchebags? Did those water guns really look friendly to anyone? But the most Nate could do was shake his head in response to Jaro's question, which made black dots swim around the edges of his vision, and croak, "Thanks."

 

[The Walrein]

"Sure," Jaro said. "I guess you just live in Treasure Town, then? Actually, wait, more important question- how'd you get flipped over like that? Uh, I guess he was mostly invisible at the time so it'd be hard to tell, but do you know if it was something Balm - he's the tall green one - did? Or is there some other mysterious Pokemon around here I should be concerned with?" Jaro looked around to see if he could notice any more footprints suddenly appearing in the sand near him.

 

[Adamhuarts]

Oh, so the Explorer heroes that accompanied them in the stories were human here. That came as a surprise to Cynthian. He didn't really get to dwell on it much because the floundering Mudkip was distracting. What was his problem?

Cynthian diverted his attention back to Maple and asked, "So, where do we find this Thyme fellow."

 

[Namohysip]

Maple looked down, frowning. "Thyme is the father of Surf and Turf," she said. "In other words... I'm sorry, Balm, but he's missing, along with Pepper. We've been searching for them ever since the crisis began. I'm sure you witnessed the Magikarp from before?"

"We did," Balm said. "But even then, I was too paranoid to think to go to Treasure Town. I thought it had already been infiltrated by the enemy. An enemy I didn't even know, just... an enemy. That's the thought that I kept thinking, over and over... because of that thing." He pointed at the jar. "Now I'm sure of it. It was taking advantage of my cautiousness and turned it into paranoia."

"...Wait!" Cabot said, raising a claw. "You were feeling paranoid that far back? That means you were sick for as long as Turf!"

"Yet you're in much better condition..." Maple rubbed her chin.

 

[Negrek]

Nate took another long blink to clear his head. The jigglypuff was talking at him from one side, the smeargle and the two bastards from the other. Something about a human hero? Godspeed that poor fuck. It wasn't a fun go of it, trying to pay attention to the missing kids shit and the peppy jigglypuff's questions and also not fucking vomit all over the beach.

What the fuck did it even mean, "How'd you get flipped over?" Like, how did you end up facedown on the sand after the Celebi shook you off like an annoying gnat? What the fuck was there to say about that?

Nate took a deep breath, fortifying himself to talk. Now that his heart rate was down and he was standing still, he actually was starting to feel a bit better. "Look, all I know is I was minding my own business, on my way to fucking town, when out of nowhere some asshole tries to motherfucking stab me." He glowers meaningfully at the sceptile. "But I only ever saw two mons out there, if that's what you mean."

 

[The Walrein]

Hmm... Jaro guessed that the weird leaf attack thing must've been related to the attempted stabbing of this Pokemon, then. Recalling something Maple had said earlier, he deduced that he must be talking to a 'Mudkip'. Probably he was just some poor sap who got in Balm's way before he launched his attack on Maple.

"That's good," he said. "Uh, not good that you almost got stabbed, but that there aren't any other crazed Pokemon waiting around here to ambush us." Jaro sighed. "Sorry you had to deal with that. I'm actually part of a group of Pokemon working to solve those kinds of problems, but we're just getting started, really. We did learn some important information today, though: Apparently there's these weird slug things which have been possessing people and making them really sick and-slash-or crazy. Luckily we've discovered a way to knock them out of people, too. So, uh, if you notice anyone in town acting really weird recently, you can come to Marowak's Dojo and let someone there know, and we'll come check it out."

Jaro thought for a moment. "Um, but if you hear someone around town saying that they've come from a different world, or that they're receiving telepathic messages from a mysterious god-like Charizard, then they're not necessarily crazy, just a member of our group. Or pretending to be one."

Jaro thought some more. "Also, wait, crap, don't tell anyone else in town about this, okay? We honestly don't know who we can trust right now, and we're not sure how much whatever force is behind all this knows how much we know about them and their slug things." Hopefully this Mudkip was trustworthy. He certainly didn't seem like someone formidable enough to be worth subverting, at least.

 

[Virgil134]

Cabot paused in thought for a moment. If Balm and Turf got infected around the same time they should have both been just as sick, yet they clearly weren't. Maybe it was because Balm was fully evolved? Or perhaps Pokémon from the future were more resistant...? No, wait.

"Hey, Balm, you mentioned that charm allows you to travel between worlds right? Who made it?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Oh, Dialga," Balm replied, looking like he had only half-processed Jaro's information barrage. "I, well... after everything happened with saving the future, efforts went toward rebuilding our world after the frozen environment ruined it. Afterward, I became... an assistant."

"Mm... There's a lot to discuss," Maple said, "and, Balm, you look very... uneven. Cepa, can you guide him to the Guild for now? We can discuss things later today. I'm going to do another patrol." She looked to the others. "We'll all get together and try to pool out information for what to do to find Team Spice."

 

[Adamhuarts]

Cynthian nodded and held his flowers to his chest. "I have a bad feeling about all this. Do you think they might be safe?"